


A Dream That I Can Call My Own

by allimarie_xf



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Canon Compliant, F/M, Season 6 Fix-It, Season/Series 07, also, post-7x01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-08-06 02:23:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16379600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allimarie_xf/pseuds/allimarie_xf
Summary: At last my love has come alongMy lonely days are over and life is like a song.At last the skies above are blueMy heart was wrapped up clover the night I looked at you.I found a dream that I could speak toA dream that I can call my own.I found a thrill to press my cheek toA thrill I've never known, oh yeahYou smiled, you smiled oh and then the spell was castAnd here we are in HeavenFor you are mine at last.Awake and asleep, present or distant, Felicity was always with him. The one constant in his life.~~~~Post-7x01. Also a season 6 fix-it, in a way~~~~





	A Dream That I Can Call My Own

**I.**

_At last my love has come along_ _  
_ _My lonely days are over and life is like a song_

 

They were dancing.

The warm clutch of her arms around his waist was just a continuation of her embrace during the hours-long ride back from Central City, and he could swear they were both still vibrating. The roar of the Ducati’s engine prevented any conversation, but in that time immediately after they’d spontaneously gotten married, they hadn’t needed words anyway. Their constant contact had been just right.

And now, back in the loft they had once called home, Oliver found himself almost reluctant to speak. He had parked in the familiar garage, never letting go of Felicity’s hand as she led him from the elevator and into the apartment. He had pulled her body against his as soon as she’d locked the door, and she’d come willingly back into his embrace.

Etta James was crooning from the surround sound, and her words were oh, so appropriate.

He slipped his hands under her leather jacket, slowly sliding it off her shoulders as they swayed. Her hands were at his belt buckle.

“Felicity.”

Her fingers paused as she looked up, her eyes locking with his for the first time in hours. “Hmm?”

He couldn’t stop the words as they slipped out. “Is this really what you wanted? Me? Us?” When she had asked him, nothing could have stopped him from saying yes. But somehow, before he let it become fully _real_ , he needed to know she was just as sure.

Her hands traveled up his chest, coming to rest tangled in his scruffy beard that she seemed lately so fond of. “Oliver. Yes. So much yes.”

It was exactly the answer he’d been hoping for, and yet.... “But yesterday you were so against it. And I understand, I get it. We almost lost each other - again, and, I just...I hope you didn’t do this just for me.”

She ran her fingers up and through his hair, and it felt so, so good. “What you do mean, ‘just for you?’”

“Just that -” He cupped her elbows in his hands, steadying them both to be sure he had her full attention. “I’ve wanted to marry you for years, Felicity. It’s the one thing I’ve _always_ been sure of.” He could tell by the liquid look in her eyes that she heard him.

But he could also see her need to tease him, test him, and she wouldn’t be Felicity if she didn’t try. “Well. Not _always_ sure of.”

He lifted his eyebrow, accepting her challenge.

“The first time you told me you loved me, you essentially took it back. You weren’t sure then.”

The look he was giving her now was not unlike the look he gave her that day on the beach, when he hadn’t quite managed to deny his feelings for her. “I was sure.”

She tilted her head at him, evidently deciding to let it go. They’d talked about this. She knew he’d had his reasons for holding back. And she’d realized, even then, what it might mean that he didn’t tell her _no_.

“The second time you told me you loved me, then. And the third. You were letting me go, those times.”

He shook his head, an indulgent smile on his lips, because they’d been over this, too. “It was never going to happen, Felicity. It was already too late for walking away.” Because they’d both carried that first “I love you” around in their hearts for months afterward, letting it gain significance in every look, every word, every touch that passed between them. Letting its unspoken truth settle in so deeply that, though their first date, when it finally happened, felt tender and delicate like a young shoot of grass, his attempt to tear her out of his heart revealed just how deeply rooted his love for her really was.

She nodded, wrapping her arms around him again. They both knew he was only humoring her, and Oliver figured she was satisfied. But then, “There were those months after Ivy Town where you hid the ring and didn’t ask me.”

Oliver smiled, and not only because she was wrong again. Also because this was the first time since they’d gotten back together that she’d brought up their previous time together without an accompanying air of regret. “I was sure then, too.” He held her gaze steadily.

“If you were so sure, why did you wait?”

It was a fair question. “I told you then I was waiting for our lives to settle down, and that was true.”

She waited, sensing correctly that he had more to say.

“I think a part of me was waiting to make sure our life wasn’t some kind of dream that I’d eventually have to wake up from.”

She cocked her head, and though he knew she had an inkling of what he meant, he could tell she needed him to put it into words.

He realized that, as much as they’d forgiven and moved forward, she needed him to lay it all out before they could completely put it behind them, and maybe he needed that, too. It was a complicated, terrifying prospect. Thankfully, Felicity had always helped him find his words and the courage to speak them. He took both her hands in his and led her to the couch, pulling her down next to him. “When we left Starling City, I believed I’d never have to return to being the Arrow again. I believed that life was over.” He paused, hit by a wave of regret over the loss of that particular happily-ever-after that he had once put so much stock in.

She squeezed his hand, her eyes encouraging him to continue.

And he found strength in her gaze, as he always did, and the regret faded easily away. “The only thing I wanted then was to marry you. As soon as possible. Because the only thing that mattered, the one thing that had been constant for years, was you.”

She nodded, not looking away as she absorbed his words. He saw that she believed him, but there was more she needed to know.

“You showed me how to live again, Felicity. Not the selfish living that defined me before the island.” He shook his head in wonder at the stranger he had been. “But also not the self-denying living I’d been doing since coming back.” He breathed out a small laugh, remembering how hard he’d tried to avoid new emotional attachments. How increasingly difficult it had become to keep his distance from her. He watched a small smile take shape on her lips, and he knew she was remembering, too, how completely he had failed to hold himself apart from other people, and especially her. “You showed me how to love other people while still holding onto myself.”

He reached out and took her chin, preventing her from looking away and hiding the tears that were filling her eyes. “But more than that, you were consistently the most worthy person I’d ever known: the smartest, most generous, most courageous, most surprising and inspiring. _You_ opened up _my_ heart in a way that I didn’t know was possible. Especially not after…everything.” He blinked away the sudden blurriness in his eyes. “So how could I want anything but to spend the rest of my life with you?”

Felicity took an audible breath and nodded slightly, and it hit him again how easy it was for her to love, yet how difficult for her to accept the love of other people. He knew that in that, they were the same, but it only seemed tragic in her case. Because if anyone deserved to be loved, it was Felicity.

“So I was sure. I was so, so certain.” He paused, needing her to feel that certainty, before continuing. “But then Thea and Laurel showed up, and they turned everything upside down when they asked me to be the Arrow again. And when you asked me, too, it made me wonder if maybe I had been mistaken.”

“Mistaken -?”

“That maybe, though my love for you was real, has always been real, maybe the life I’d hoped for wasn’t possible. Because at that point I hadn’t realized that the two things could co-exist. You told me they could, and I wanted to believe you, but….” He ran his hand through his hair. “I was afraid. My past catching back up to me, you wanting to go back to the team...it wasn’t the ending I’d imagined.”

“Oliver.” Her voice was surprised, regretful.

“No, Felicity, it wasn’t your fault, and we both know that now. But at the time it made me afraid that everything could fall apart. That it would. So I waited. And sooner rather than later, it did, because I was so focused on trying to make everything perfect, I failed to let it be right. But the one thing I never lost sight of was how I felt about you.” He nodded, letting the gesture add weight to his words. “I understood why you walked away, I did. But that was never, never going to change the fact that you are the only person I have ever wanted to spend forever with; the only person I would have waited forever for.” He ran his thumb over her cheek, wiping away a tear that had slipped out. “That’s just the way it’s always been for me when it comes to you.”

She brought her hands up to rest over his and took a deep, sniffly breath.

“Okay?”

She smiled wetly. “Okay.”

He leaned down and brushed his lips over hers, enjoying the intimacy of soft mouths and shared breath. She ran her fingernails up his arms, from where his hands were cupping her face to his shoulders and then into his hair, and Oliver groaned at the sensation. Felicity took the opportunity to deepen their kiss, thrusting her tongue into his mouth in a way that left little doubt about her plans for the rest of the evening.

But she hadn’t answered his question, and he hadn’t forgotten. “Felicity,” he mumbled, trying to pull back.

She chased his kiss, sucking his lower lip into her mouth and slipping her hands under his t-shirt, fumbling again for his belt buckle. “Oliver, please.” She pulled away just far enough to pin him with her darkened gaze. “Let me fuck my husband.”

It took Oliver a split second to realize the sound he was hearing was a tortured groan coming from his own chest, but his resolve was firm. “Felicity.” He was sure he’d never said her name quite like that before: needy and regretful and pleading. “Just tell me, please.”

She looked genuinely confused. “Tell you what?” He felt the breath of her words on his face and her lips were so, so close.

“Tell me that you didn’t agree to marry me because,” he shrugged helplessly, unable to find just the right words, “because you’re trying to control everything, the way I did. I mean, I get it. After everything that happened, you realized that your greatest fear is losing me, and so you figured -”

“Oliver, no. You don’t get it at all.” It was her turn to pull back. “You think that everything that happened this weekend made me realize how much you mean to me?”

“Well, yeah.”

She sighed, bringing a hand to his cheek. “You have it completely backwards. I’ve always known, Oliver. It’s _because_ I can’t lose you that I was afraid to marry you, do you understand?”

Oliver definitely didn’t.

She exhaled a short laugh, running her thumb over his lips. As if she could make him feel everything she felt for him through that touch. “Baby.” She whispered the words, fighting her instinct to never, ever speak her deepest fear aloud. “In my experience, when I have everything I want, I lose it.” She was watching his face carefully. “My dad. Cooper. Palmer Tech. You.”

Oliver flinched. “Felicity, you never lost -”

“Yes, you. I did. You lost me, Oliver, and it amounted to the same thing. So somehow, it seemed to me that if I ever let myself have that again - if I could find my greatest happiness, with you, again - that I would lose it again, too. And that’s why I said no, Oliver. Not because I don’t want to be married to you. Because I want it too much.”

He watched her, watching him, waiting, maybe for the fallout that she still wasn’t entirely sure wasn’t imminent. They breathed and they waited and they watched each other, and he saw it on her face when the moment of crisis had passed. And she smiled, and he smiled, because they had confessed their last secrets, and the only thing left between them was the love that had always been there.

But he still had to know, so he asked in a much lighter voice, “Then what finally changed your mind?”

She took a moment to run her hands over his body, as if it were the first time she was feeling him for the pleasure of it alone, rather than to reassure herself he was real. Then she looked back into his face, and her eyes were that confident, unwavering blue that had lifted him up so many times in the past. “It was when I realized that what we have is already everything to me. Letting myself love you, letting myself be loved by you - that’s my greatest happiness, and nothing can take that away, no matter what happens. Acting like I’m holding something in reserve to trick fate is just me being superstitious - and doing so was denying both of us something that we want. So that’s why.” She shrugged.

“So you really do love me?”

“Oliver! How can you -”

“As much as you used to, I mean.”

She put her hands on his shoulders and held him gently in place. “Oliver.” She leaned toward him and pressed her lips to his, pulling back just enough so that when she spoke he could feel the words brushing against his mouth. “I never stopped loving you. No matter how much I tried.” She leaned back further and met his eyes squarely. “It’s like what you said. It was much, much too late for walking away.”

Oliver’s heart jolted in that way that it only did for Felicity, with too much love and too much joy than he knew what to do with, and he pulled her toward him in a fierce kiss. She was here. She was his. Forever. At last.

  


* * *

**II.**

_At last the skies above are blue_ _  
_ _My heart was wrapped up clover the night I looked at you_

 

“So how is that group project going?”

Oliver was grilling chicken, and the aroma of seasoned, roasted vegetables was emanating from the oven. A crusty loaf of bread was warming in the toaster oven, and he had a bottle of Petit Chablis chilling on ice. Most importantly, his two reasons for cooking dinner (and for getting out of bed, serving as mayor, protecting the city, and living) were sitting at the kitchen table where he could see them. Felicity was on her tablet and William was doing homework, but they were chatting companionably and Oliver was pretty sure this was what having an overflowing heart felt like.

William sighed dramatically. “It’s stupid. It’s just me and one other person who are doing all the work. The other three just goof off.”

Oliver felt a surge of overprotection. Those other kids sounded like real jerks, and he wondered if he could get Felicity to get the names and numbers of their parents. Not that he’d call them as the Green Arrow...but as a concerned parent who just happened to also be the mayor, well. That could be effective. Never mind the fact that when he was a kid he most definitely never contributed to any group project, because that was then, and this was now.

“That ‘other person,’...is it Logan?” Felicity’s tone lilted knowingly, and Oliver was instantly on alert. Who was Logan?

William was silent for a long moment, evidently caught up in his homework. Felicity, likewise, seemed focused on her tablet. After an extended pause during which Oliver felt like he was the only one who remembered that a question remained unanswered, William finally replied. “Yeah, he’s the one who’s helping. It’s a good thing he’s smart and good at history.”

Felicity tapped away at her tablet. “Well, I know you said you didn’t want me to talk to the parents of the other kids, or your teacher...so I guess I’m glad that you have Logan, at least.”

William’s pencil had stopped moving. “Yeah.” He laughed suddenly. “Yeah. And anyway it’s actually not a lot of work even just between us. We didn’t divide it in half, we’re kinda working on all of it together, and….” He looked up at Felicity suddenly, consciously dropping the smile that had been on his face. “Anyway, he’s okay. It’s working out.”

When William looked back down at his homework, Felicity slid her gaze up to meet Oliver’s, and it was clear from the look in her eyes that she had a story to tell him. Something that delighted her, that she seemed eager to discuss. He smiled back, overtaken by a strange warmth that he knew had everything to do with the reality of being a parent to his son _with Felicity._

The timer rang and he turned to pull the vegetables out of the oven, then he flipped the last breast of chicken on the stove. Felicity’s arms landed on his shoulders, and he instantly relaxed into her touch. “Mmmm.”

She leaned her face into his back and inhaled. “Hmm. Dress shirt. Smells good.” Her hands smoothed down his arms, then wrapped around his body, fingers fiddling idly with one of his buttons. “I missed you.”

He turned in her embrace, then leaned down suddenly and lifted her up. Her legs instinctively wrapped around him, and her mouth immediately found his. He took a minute to just let himself enjoy kissing her. It was something he’d quickly gotten used to again: her soft lips and playful tongue, her enthusiasm. It was so natural, so right, that sometimes he almost forgot that he’d lived for a year and a half without it. _Almost._ Not quite. If he had learned one thing in that time, it was to never, ever take a single kiss for granted.

Eventually he pulled away far enough to look her in the face. Her lips were kiss-swollen and she looked a little disheveled. Realizing they’d been lost in each other for longer than he’d intended, he reached back blindly to turn off the burner in the hopes that he could salvage that last piece of chicken. His eyes crinkled at the corners as he answered her belatedly. “I miss you, too.”

Felicity smiled down from where he still held her easily in his arms, her clear, compassionate eyes conveying awareness of the shared burdens that were responsible for their long hours spent apart: Cayden James, the city’s finances, pressure from city officials, and the constant threat of worse things. “I love you.”

“Felicity.” I would be lost without you. Thank you for being my partner in everything. “I love you, too.”

She nodded, understanding the words he didn’t say because they were foundational to their relationship; they didn’t need to be spoken to be understood. She leaned down to kiss him again, and he met her halfway. Cayden James and long hours were insignifcant and temporary compared to this. Together they had already stopped a hundred Cayden James’s, and they could stop a hundred more.

“Are you guys done being gross yet? I kinda wanted to eat dinner tonight.”

William’s words brought them back to reality, but they didn’t jolt apart like guilty lovers. They had agreed from the beginning that they wouldn’t hide their love for one another from him, that exposing a kid to a certain amount of PDA was healthy for him; and besides, they both knew that they’d never be able to keep their hands off each other. But they’d decided there should be some limits to what was acceptable, and they’d found so far that staying within those bounds was much more difficult than they originally thought it would be.

With a slightly sheepish smile on his face, Oliver looked over at William, leaning against the counter. “Yeah.” He let Felicity slide back down to the ground. “Dinner’s ready, yeah.” He met Felicity’s eyes briefly, and she was grinning unapologetically. “William, you want to set the table? Felicity, you want to get the wine?”

“I’m on it.”

Oliver busied himself placing the food in serving dishes, and his heart was full of the sounds of his family moving around the kitchen.

  


* * *

**III.**

_I found a dream that I could speak to_ _  
_ _A dream that I can call my own_

 

Oliver answered the call on the first ring, because it was Felicity. “Hi.”

“What are the chances you can get down here in the next...now?”

Oliver considered his schedule for the rest of his day: meetings with various city stakeholders who all wanted the opportunity to register their personal complaints regarding the city’s impending financial disaster. “I can be there. What do you got?”

“Well, no promises, but a report just came in about a bomb threat at a small private airfield just outside the city. What do you think are the chances -”

“That either Black Siren, Anatoly, or Diaz is trying to run?”

“You read my mind.”

Oliver smiled into the phone, some of the weariness of the day melting away. “I’ll be right there.”

 

* * * * * *

 

“Overwatch, we’re onsite!” Oliver parked his bike in a small lot and followed John toward a crowd of police vehicles.

“Okay, the police have cordoned off the area around the air traffic control tower, but satellite imaging is showing me some movement along the southwest perimeter….” The familiar sound of her fingers on the keyboard filtered through the comms. “And also it looks like there’s some activity near the tower.”

Thankfully, dusk had just fallen and they were able to take advantage of the darkness. “Spartan, see if you can get eyes on that. I’ll go check the perimeter.” Oliver slid discreetly through the shadows, looking out for anything that moved.

“Okay.” Felicity left her line open, creating a sustained sense of her presence at times when he was physically alone. He couldn’t remember when she’d started doing that, but he knew she did it consciously, and he was pretty sure she was aware that it helped him focus and gave him a sense of peace, especially during risky solo missions that had always seemed lonelier the more dangerous they were. “I am hacking into the police frequency to see if I can find out what’s going on. Doesn’t seem to be a standard bomb evacuation.”

John’s line clicked to life. “Can visually confirm that, Overwatch. Looks like we got a standoff situation.”

“Oh.” Her tone betrayed her disappointment. “ Well then I guess this isn’t one of James’s goons trying to hightail it out of the city.”

Oliver’s heart sank as he spied the unwelcome source of movement he’d set out to locate. “No, but it seems we weren’t the only ones who thought to check it out.” He stepped toward Rene and Curtis, careful not to startle them.

Rene lifted his mask so Oliver could just make out his face.  “I’d say it’s nice to see you, Hoss, but that would be a lie.”

Oliver rolled his eyes, not rising to Rene’s predictable bait. “We have a standoff situation going on here. This has nothing to do with Black Siren or the others, so you two can go home.”

Also predictably, Rene’s attitude was turned up to 11 with little provocation. “And let the SCPD handle it, you mean? Or let you handle it?”

Felicity interjected, though only Oliver and John could hear her. “Um, I hate to break up this little reunion, but we got a crazy person with a block of C-4 who needs a little attention, guys. Unless of course you’d like to settle this argument when you’re dead?”

“Overwatch.” He didn’t say she was being overdramatic, but his tone definitely suggested it.

“What? You’re in the blast radius, and I don’t know about you, but the SCPD doesn’t have my full confidence at the moment.”

Oliver sighed and turned his back on his former teammates. “I’m on my way over.” He was already jogging back to John’s position.

“Yeah, well, could you maybe hurry? I’m not interested in going stag to my honeymoon.”

Oliver reached John a moment later and gave him an exasperated look. John lifted his arms in the universally recognized gesture for “I’m staying out of it.”

“The police are trying to negotiate, but this dude does not seem stable. Or sober. Seriously, he’s totally wigging out.”

“Overwatch.”

“Yeah...yeah. They have him surrounded, but the bomb’s in the tower and he’s threatening to detonate if they get too close. No one seems to know what his endgame is. No demands, nothing.”

“Can you tell us anything about him?”

“Not much. Radio chatter suggests he’s an air-traffic controller; facial recog confirmed it. He’s got FAA and TSA security clearance; no history of violence. Probably he just needed a vacation. Which, you know. Relatable.”

John turned toward Oliver, catching his eye. “If we can cut the power source from the initiator, we can disable the detonator.”

“Yeah, but I can’t get a line of sight.” The airfield was flat, with no tall structures other than the radio control tower, and no good cover that wasn’t also too far away.

“Um, FYI, ex-Team Arrow seems to be attempting something of their own. I think they’re using Curtis’s balls.”

Oliver met John’s eyes and they both determinedly did not smile. But only because the gravity of the situation made it inappropriate.

They seemed to be at an impasse. “I need to find a way to get closer.”

“Yeah, uh, we got a problem. The cops have spotted Curtis and Rene and if they throw down they’re gonna attract crazypants’s attention, and he seems just a little too trigger happy for that to end well.”

Oliver glanced at John, who nodded. “I’m on it.”

“Just northeast of your position,” she directed him. “Yep, you found ‘em. Okay, and while he’s taking care of that, Green Arrow, I have an idea. I was able to remote in to some SCPD tech, which gave me on-the-ground visuals, and I think I found this guy’s blind spot.”

“Okay, talk me in.”

“Twelve meters ahead and on your right you should see a truck. Head that way. Spartan, how’s it going?”

John’s heavy sigh came over the comms. “Yeah. We got it under control. The cop’s napping. And what part of ‘stand down’ do you guys not understand? We told you, we got this!”

Rene’s voice was just discernible over the airwaves. “And what part of ‘we don’t take orders from you’ do you not understand, John?”

By contrast, Felicity’s voice in Oliver’s ear was much more intimate and welcome. “Green Arrow, I’m cutting off Spartan’s connection to you because you need to focus on me. I mean, not on me, but on my voice. My directions. You know what I mean.”

“I do.” He didn’t bother to disguise the smile in his voice, but it didn’t matter because Felicity was all business.

“Okay. If you skirt around the right side of that truck and duck down at three o’clock, you should have a good enough view. And then,” her voice took on an exhilarated tone that was not entirely appropriate to the situation, “you can use one of those new targeted EMP arrows! Just, you know. Be careful where you aim it.”

Oliver couldn’t stop the smile that flickered over his face.

 

* * * * * *

 

Fifteen minutes later, Oliver was on his bike heading back to the bunker, alone except for Felicity’s familiar voice in his ear.

“So that was fun. We’re not any closer to catching the unholy trinity, but at least there’s one less psycho-slash-tragically-underappreciated-and-overworked air traffic controller in the not-so-friendly-skies. Though I still think he probably just needed a vacation. Air traffic controlling is a stressful job! I mean, not as tough as mayor-by-day, vigilante-by-night, but, you know. It’s up there.”

He let the sound of her chatter wash over him. He had never been one to have whole conversations over the comms, but somewhere along the line, he had come to rely on Felicity’s habit of filling the silence that typically fell when their work was done. At this point, it had become an almost indispensable part of his post-mission decompression.

“Speaking of, have you given any further thought to where in Aruba you want to go? Or when? Or what you want to do there?”

Oliver waited a beat before giving the only answer that mattered to him. “You.”

“Me - excuse me? Did you just say -”

_“Overwatch.”_

“Yes, _Green Arrow?”_

“Soon. We’ll go to Aruba soon.” He let his mind drift over the idea for just a moment. Imagining the sandy beaches and no cellphones and no city business and no emergencies and no responsibilities at all: just him and Felicity. Like they had savored that one summer, except better because this time she had agreed to be his always. And they would take naked naps in the afternoons with the trade winds stirring the gauzy curtains and when he woke up he would spend hours reacquainting himself with the flavor of her body when it was warmed by equatorial sunlight. He sighed, feeling the weight of the long days and weeks and maybe months that they had to get through first. The suffocating press of a dozen crises that had to be unraveled and addressed before they could get away. It was enough to make him feel isolated and trapped. But he could still hear her breathing, right there in his ear, reminding him that no matter where he was or what was going on, she was always in it with him. Even when they were apart she had never left him. The sound of her voice in his ear was a constant, and more than that, she had made herself a constant in his life. So the honeymoon was still a vague someday away, but the most important part he could have whenever they made the time. “Overwatch.”

Her reply was instantaneous. “Yeah?”

“I don’t know when we’ll get to Aruba, but I’ll be back in 5 minutes. Do you want to go home?”

He heard her draw a long breath before answering, and he realized it had been days, if not weeks, since they’d had a quiet night at home. “I’ll call Raisa and see if she can keep...uh, _junior,_ overnight. We should really come up with a code name for him, too.”

“I’d really rather we didn’t.”

Felicity laughed lightly. “I’ll see you at home.”

Oliver smiled to himself as the comm disconnected. _Home._

  


* * *

**IV.**  

_I found a thrill to press my cheek to_ _  
_ _A thrill I've never known_

 

Oliver toed his shoes off as he stepped into the dark apartment, feeling a strange flutter of nerves. “Felicity?”

He glanced around the living room before moving toward the bedroom. Before he got there, the door slid open, revealing Felicity, backlit by dim lamplight. “That’s Overwatch, to you.”

His heart sped up and he stopped in his tracks, waiting to follow her lead. “Okay, Overwatch.”

She dropped her hands from either side of the door and sauntered toward him. “Good job out there tonight, Green Arrow.” She was wearing a simple navy belted dress that reminded him of the types of things she used to wear when she was his Executive Assistant, and he couldn’t wait to peel it off her.

“If I’m not mistaken, I think it was you who deserve most of the credit for tonight.”

She paused and brought her hand dramatically to her heart. “Oliver Queen, was that a thank you?”

He closed the distance between them in a single step, then he leaned down so that his lips lingered at her ear. “No.” He leaned back and met her surprised eyes with an arch look.

She put one hand on her hip and reached for his loosened tie with the other, letting her eyes wander down his body and then up again. “You’re lucky you’re cute.” She pulled him back toward her with the tie, and he moved toward her willingly.

“You think so?”

Her playful gaze snagged on his at the question, her eyes first widening in slight disbelief and then igniting with intense focus. Her restless fingers traveled to the knot at his throat. “You,” her hands moved to the top button of his shirt, and she spoke slowly, undoing one button with every word, “are the most handsome vigilante I’ve ever seen.”

The corners of his lips curved up at her teasing, but her burning eyes were making it hard for him to match her mischievous tone. Still, he was not one to go down without a fight. “Only the most handsome vigilante, huh?” He resisted the urge to put his hands on her.

“Well, to be fair, it’s a tough field.” She leveraged his neck down with the tie and then slipped it over his head. “There’s you.” She grabbed his right hand and undid the buttons at his wrist. “Curtis.” She repeated the action on the other side. “John. Rene.” She slid her hands up his chest and over his shoulders, pushing the dress shirt away and allowing it to drop on the floor. “Hmm, let’s see. Roy.” She met his eyes and nodded significantly. Oliver huffed out an indignant breath. She took a step back and swept her eyes over him. “Who am I missing?”

“Barry.” Oliver immediately wanted to bite his tongue.

“Ah, yes, Barry! But does Barry count? Isn’t he more of a superhero than a vigilante?” She tapped her lips with her index finger.

“Does it matter?”

“Are you asking if there’s a significant difference between vigilante and superhero, or are you asking if my assessment of your handsomeness status might change depending on whether or not Barry is among the competition?”

Oliver stared at her, open-mouthed. “What?”

Felicity smiled in ill-concealed delight. “Never mind.” Her eyes zeroed in on his belt buckle, and suddenly she was standing very, very close.

“Felicity, I can see you’re about to take my pants off, but I have to warn you, you’ve just been comparing me to a bunch of other guys and I don’t exactly feel...at my best, at the moment.”

Her hands paused on his fly and she looked up into his face. “Oliver.” Her eyes traveled to his lips and seemed to get stuck there before they wandered down his body, taking in his very bare chest and abs. She took a deep breath and then looked back into his eyes, resting her hands lightly on his chest. “Oliver.” And this time, the teasing was gone. “You are the most handsome man I’ve ever seen.” She bit her bottom lip. “Whether you’re in a suit or under a hood.”

His eyes brightened at the reference, words that were seared forever into his memory. “I’m the man that you believe in.”

She smiled, not surprised. “Yes. And you’re the man that I love.”

They looked at each other for a long, quiet moment. Remembering. “That was before I could touch you the way I wanted to.”

“Oh yeah?”

He nodded. “Mmm-hmm. Like, for example, I could touch you here,” he placed his hand on her shoulder, “but not here.” He moved the hand to cradle her neck, stepping further into her space as he did so.

“Hmm. What else?”

“Well, I could touch your hand.” He picked up her hand with his free one and pressed it against his bare chest, running his fingers over her knuckles. “But I couldn’t kiss it.” He held her eyes as he raised her hand to his lips and pressed light kisses into her palm. “And more. Felicity, so much more.” He leaned down and captured her bottom lip in his, drawing a groan from her as she wrapped her arms around his body.

“More is good,” she mumbled against his lips. “Very, very good.” And she was dipping her tongue into his open mouth, coaxing him closer, deeper. Her hands found the button and then the zipper of his dress pants, and Oliver shivered at the feel of her nails grazing over his bare hips as she drew his pants and boxers down in one motion.

And then he was naked while she was fully clothed, and that was not acceptable. He tried to step back. “Felici-”

“Mm-mm, Oliver.” She ran her hands over his ass and then grabbed his hips, holding him in place, his erection pressing firmly against her body, and she captured his mouth again in a deep kiss that distracted him from his purpose. She drew back slightly, her lips clinging to his as she changed her angle, and he let himself follow her lead. Felicity kissed him with such a perfect balance of tension and release that he never found it easy to break away.

But when she pulled away slightly, her panting breaths tickling his face, he took his opportunity. “Felicity, wait.”

“Wait?” She met his eyes in confusion.

Instead of answering her, his hands found the zipper on her dress, and understanding dawned on her face. Knowing she was in no mood to draw things out any longer, he pulled the zipper down quickly and she raised her arms in assistance as he pulled the dress over her head. He leaned down to whisper in her ear.  “I was planning our honeymoon as I drove over here.”

That briefly caught her attention. “Yeah? Like, you wanna book a hotel or something?” Her hands had returned to his hips and were beginning to explore, while her eyes were already getting distracted by his mouth.

“No.” His mouth curved up in a smile and she wet her lips in response. “I was planning what I’m going to do to you on our honeymoon.” Her eyes locked on his.

“Oh.”

His smile widened into a grin. “Yeah.”

“And what’s that?”

Oliver leaned down and picked her up with no apparent effort, sliding his hands under her underwear and gripping her ass for support. “I could tell you.” He moved them toward the bedroom. “But I figured I’d show you instead.”

“Yes, okay.” She nodded as he carried her through the apartment and laid her down on the bed. He followed her down, sliding the length of his body over hers, bracing his arms on either side of her head, mingling their body heat, hovering but not quite touching.

He took a moment to let his eyes drift over her face, her hair, her lips.

“Oliver.”

“Hmmm?”

In answer, she ran her hands down his back and cupped his ass, squeezing him toward her as she raised her hips to complete the connection.

Oliver sucked in a tight breath, resisting her pull for a second longer before letting himself sink into the cradle between her legs.

“That’s better.”

He let his head fall to the pillow and his lips found her neck, just below her ear. He kissed her there, enjoying the feel of her skin against his lips, enjoying the way she tilted and stretched her neck, giving him better access as he continued to place soft, open-mouthed kisses over her neck, her jaw, at the corners of her mouth. She was writhing under him, angling for more contact against his erection, turning her head so that his kisses would land on her lips. His control was quickly slipping, but he held back a little longer.

Changing tactics, she dragged her nails slowly back up along his body, letting her fingers appreciate the dips and planes of muscle before curling them lightly into the hair at the base of his neck. She knew his most sensitive spots, and when she drew his head toward her so she could nip at his ear with soft lips, he knew it was over. It had been days since they’d had a chance to find themselves in each other’s bodies, and he realized there was no point in drawing this out when, for once, they had all night.

He lifted his hips, finding her entrance with the tip of his cock and nudging her open, letting the head slide in and then waiting. She spoke into his ear, the words more sensation than sound. “Is this my thank you?”

He raised his head enough to look into her clear blue eyes, gazing back at him with blown pupils and an expression that, impossibly, recognized him to the core and still loved him. “It’s mine.”

And he let himself sink into her slowly, filling her inch by inch, and she moved under him, meeting him thrust for thrust.

  


* * *

**V.**  

_You smiled, you smiled oh and then the spell was cast_ _  
_ _And here we are in Heaven_

_For you are mine at last._

 

The alarm was blaring, loud and obnoxious, but Oliver just needed a few more minutes in bed with his wife before he had to go face the world again. He could feel her everywhere, all soft and warm and curved and fitting against him perfectly. The air was filled with the scent of her hair, her skin.

The first time they had this, he had never quite gotten over the delight of sleeping with her, waking with her. The fact that she was a cold sleeper, and would always snuggle up to him for warmth. The fact that she would sometimes press soft kisses against his skin without waking up. The way her hair framed her face on the pillow, the way her skin glowed when morning sunlight found it through open windows. The simple rise and fall of her breasts, her dark lashes against her cheeks, the loose curl of her resting hands. Before Felicity, he’d had opinions about mattresses, bedsheets, and comforters. But when she was sleeping next to him, all other comforts faded to the background.

And when she was gone, his bed had never been as empty, and there was no comfort to be found there at all.

But somehow, despite everything, she had chosen him again, and this time it wasn’t delight he felt, but wonder at her presence. Conscious thanks that she could and did let herself be that vulnerable with him again. And as often as he could, he would take the time to appreciate it.

Now she was lying facing him, their legs tangled together, one of her arms pressed between them, the other draped around his body. She was asleep, her head snuggled into his shoulder, and he could hear the deep, even sounds of her breathing close to his ear.

And it made him smile, because somehow she was always in his ear, in his head. Her breath, her voice, her support, letting him know, awake and asleep, present or distant, that she was always with him. The one constant in his life. And so it didn’t really matter that he had to wake up, had to untangle his body from hers and go out on his own to meet today’s crisis, because no amount of distance could ever really separate them.

He couldn’t put off the alarm any longer; it was louder, harsher, more unforgiving. Against his will, he felt his consciousness rising to meet the waking world that was pulling, tugging, shaking him. It had a voice, and the voice could no longer be ignored.

“Morning, 4587. Beautiful day.”

And Oliver woke up, remembering Slabside, Diaz, Felicity’s visit. Remembering that she had been attacked, remembering her resolve to fight back. Remembering how she had shifted his own resolve, that he was going to fight back, too. Yesterday had just been a start. He paused briefly, thinking back on the vivid memories he had conjured in his dreams. It was the first night he hadn’t had the nightmare. It was the first time he’d dreamed not of what he was fighting against, but what he was fighting for.

**Author's Note:**

> ....and that's all I have to say about that. /Forest Gump
> 
> Um, no, I have some things to say:
> 
> 1\. HI! Thank you so much for reading this! I really really really hoped you liked it, because wow it took more out of me than I intended. Definitely about 5,000 words longer than intended, too. Please let me know what you thought!! This one was sort of pushing the boundaries of my comfort zone, so, yeah. Here are my insecurities. Please allay them! (Or, you know, don't. ;)
> 
> 2\. So I'm super super excited about season 7, y'all. I finally got back from my super-long multi-state trip, and my plan was to jump right back into one of my existing projects. But then I watched 7x01, and...well. Here's the result of that. Also I got sick (I still am) and my fuzzy brain would not follow directions. 
> 
> 3\. Speaking of season 7, want to be friends on [tumblr](https://allimariexf.tumblr.com/) so we can fangirl together over there? I love this fandom, and all I need are more fandom friends. (ALL! THE! FANDOM! FRIENDS!)
> 
> 4\. I forgot what #4 was going to be. I'll come back and edit this as soon as I remember. Okay, enjoy 7x02 tonight! I am soooo excited.


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